Using a Multi-disciplinary Model to Increase HIV Testing, Reduce HIV Transmission Rates and Improve Linkage to Care

Issues: New HIV infections continue to rise while an estimated quarter million Americans do not know they are infected with HIV. Social justice in an HIV context requires early diagnosis of disease and provision of adequate care and treatment on a continuous basis while addressing the social determinants of health affecting outcomes. Governments, providers, philanthropists, lawyers and health informatics all have roles to play in collaboration to reduce transmissions and increase access to care and treatment. Description: A description of community-wide working models involving local government leadership, philanthropic support, provider engagement, protection of legal rights and utilization of health informatics for data management and program evaluation will provide a roadmap for municipalities seeking to scale-up HIV testing and treatment initiatives. Using lecture and actual case studies, participants will learn the partnerships and tools necessary to implement a community-based approach to HIV testing, linkage to care, continuity of care, access to social and legal services, within the parameters of patient confidentiality, necessary for holistic patient care. Participants will learn how jurisdictions are using health informatics to provide cross-disciplinary access to data and to measure initiative outcomes. Lessons Learned: Preliminary program evaluation reveals that scaled-up municipal HIV testing initiatives result in increased identification of new infections and enhanced ability to refer patients to care and maintain them in care. Next Steps: Expanding the use of health informatics to provide access to necessary data across disciplines can help providers of all services - medical, social, legal - to provide better client services.